For years, Dwight Howard and Deron Williams talked about teaming up. They realized these kinds of super teams are the only way to compete with the Heat in the East.

And it almost came together. Williams was in Brooklyn (well, New Jersey soon to be Brooklyn) and Howard was trying to force a trade there, but the Magic screwed it up by not wanting Brook Lopez (or to send Howard where he wanted to go). Then Howard really screwed it up by waiving his early termination option — once he did that he lost a lot of trade leverage. Brooklyn’s management got tired of screwing around with it, went and got Joe Johnson and kept Lopez.

Williams is reportedly not thrilled with Howard waiving his leverage and not coming to Brooklyn.

Dwight Howard doesn’t care. Here’s his quote, thanks to Stephen Bondy of the New York Daily News, via Sulia:

“That’s my decision. It’s my life so if he’s upset because I made a decision for me, so be it. If he doesn’t want to be friends because I’m on another team, then so be it. There’s no need to smooth things over, you know?”

Howard is in a position not to care because did okay for himself in the end. After getting over the whole Shaq footsteps thing, he landed on a loaded team that can contend now and plans to rebuild around him in the coming years. And in a major media market. And he’s still near a Disney resort.

D-Will, he’s on a Nets team off to a nice start in the East (6-2), but still a team nobody really trusts in going all that far when the pressure really comes. But it’s another good landing spot, even if we question their roster construction.

And do you really think at the end of the day they’re not friends anymore?

I think Dwight is tired of everyones bull crap. Good for him, let everyone know where you are coming from right off the bat. No more screwing around.Howard is ten times better then I thought and I thought he was great before he even played one min.

The Rock wrote:I cannot believe us Laker fans had pages upon pages upon pages of debate on whether you'd take Howard over Bynum

It was always ridiculous. Bynum is nowhere near Dwight's league. No matter what revgen and KeepBynum wanted you to believe.

Matt Barnes - "I respect all my opponents but I fear no one."

Deron Williams - “I hate ’em, you know,” he said the other day. “I hate the Lakers. They’re so good. I hate them because they win all the time. They’re a tough team. … We definitely talk about it. It’s not a secret. We hate the Lakers.”

For years, Dwight Howard and Deron Williams talked about teaming up. They realized these kinds of super teams are the only way to compete with the Heat in the East.

And it almost came together. Williams was in Brooklyn (well, New Jersey soon to be Brooklyn) and Howard was trying to force a trade there, but the Magic screwed it up by not wanting Brook Lopez (or to send Howard where he wanted to go). Then Howard really screwed it up by waiving his early termination option — once he did that he lost a lot of trade leverage. Brooklyn’s management got tired of screwing around with it, went and got Joe Johnson and kept Lopez.

Williams is reportedly not thrilled with Howard waiving his leverage and not coming to Brooklyn.

Dwight Howard doesn’t care. Here’s his quote, thanks to Stephen Bondy of the New York Daily News, via Sulia:

“That’s my decision. It’s my life so if he’s upset because I made a decision for me, so be it. If he doesn’t want to be friends because I’m on another team, then so be it. There’s no need to smooth things over, you know?”

Howard is in a position not to care because did okay for himself in the end. After getting over the whole Shaq footsteps thing, he landed on a loaded team that can contend now and plans to rebuild around him in the coming years. And in a major media market. And he’s still near a Disney resort.

D-Will, he’s on a Nets team off to a nice start in the East (6-2), but still a team nobody really trusts in going all that far when the pressure really comes. But it’s another good landing spot, even if we question their roster construction.

And do you really think at the end of the day they’re not friends anymore?

The Rock wrote:I cannot believe us Laker fans had pages upon pages upon pages of debate on whether you'd take Howard over Bynum

It was always ridiculous. Bynum is nowhere near Dwight's league. No matter what revgen and KeepBynum wanted you to believe.

To be fair, the real risk was in trading the second best center with some serious upside, for the best center who could have been a 1 year rental. And also the fact that it had to be assumed we'd be playing in a slow-it-down halfcourt offense. After all, we struggled mightily with Howard in that type of offense, even more so than we did with Bynum.

But I'm pretty sure that if someone has said who would you rather have with Mike D'Antoni as head coach, even the staunchest of Bynum supporters would have said Howard because he's clearly, far and away, the better player in a more uptempo style offense.

^^^ Agreed with the statement about the MDA offense and being head coach. I've given arguments for keeping Drew over D12 before, but those really do go out the window when the offense involves a faster pace, etc.

Rule of Thumb at ClubLakers - Never encourage people to check your post history.

nthydro wrote:Bynum's having a great year. I hear he's bowling 200 now.

"The first time I ever saw my uniform hanging in the locker I put it on right away, and it just felt like I was putting on golden armour. From that day forward, I just called it 'the golden armour', it just felt like there was something mystical and magical about it" - Kobe Bryant.

The Rock wrote:I cannot believe us Laker fans had pages upon pages upon pages of debate on whether you'd take Howard over Bynum

It was always ridiculous. Bynum is nowhere near Dwight's league. No matter what revgen and KeepBynum wanted you to believe.

To be fair, the real risk was in trading the second best center with some serious upside, for the best center who could have been a 1 year rental. And also the fact that it had to be assumed we'd be playing in a slow-it-down halfcourt offense. After all, we struggled mightily with Howard in that type of offense, even more so than we did with Bynum.

But I'm pretty sure that if someone has said who would you rather have with Mike D'Antoni as head coach, even the staunchest of Bynum supporters would have said Howard because he's clearly, far and away, the better player in a more uptempo style offense.

Defensively, D12 is a beast and even more so than I remember.

And let's not forget that Dwight was seriously injured as well. That was my main concern about the trade.

But if you are naming names, which I don't really think you should be, you should put the onus on the guy who started the thread and was the start of many much more inane threads than Bynum being better than Howard, and that would be the poster known as Doberman. That was the guy who liked Mike Brown more than Phil, BTW. He kept on making threads of so and so (on the Lakers) is better than some other player (who usually was commonly considered much better).

There was nothing wrong with supporting our own, and Drew was our own. There was a lot to be proud of with him last year - he kept healthy and he improved greatly. He made the All Star Team, and he became the second best center in the NBA. Of course there were also the dumb statements, i.e. "Close out games are really kind of easy" and the continued immaturity.

For the record, IIRC the only guy that Revgen was cool with trading Bynum for was Howard. Bynum was Revgen's favorite player so his defending him here is understood. I think most of us would do the same with our favorite player.

The Rock wrote:I cannot believe us Laker fans had pages upon pages upon pages of debate on whether you'd take Howard over Bynum

It was always ridiculous. Bynum is nowhere near Dwight's league. No matter what revgen and KeepBynum wanted you to believe.

There's zero need to start calling posters out by name here, trying to basically pick fights, you don't make yourself look smarter by calling out others for their opinions without the benefit of hindsight.

khmrP wrote:^^^Doberman is probably the same guy as KeeyBynum currently Texas Laker fans, their treads are quite similar.

There's also no reason to throw out accusations like this with zero proof, Texas Laker Fan is not Doberman, as Doberman is a banned member, if he were he would have been banned for creating a new account. Zero reason to start calling posters out or accusing them of being banned members.

Weezy wrote:There's also no reason to throw out accusations like this with zero proof, Texas Laker Fan is not Doberman, as Doberman is a banned member, if he were he would have been banned for creating a new account. Zero reason to start calling posters out or accusing them of being banned members.

Weezy wrote:There's also no reason to throw out accusations like this with zero proof, Texas Laker Fan is not Doberman, as Doberman is a banned member, if he were he would have been banned for creating a new account. Zero reason to start calling posters out or accusing them of being banned members.

he's also keepbynum and there's proof

He's not also keepbynum, he is keepbynum, it's the same account, he asked the staff to change his username and it was changed. What's your point?

khmrP wrote:^^^so people can come on here make ridiculous post and have their screen name change w/o any objections?

I'm really not following you here, not seeing your 'beef' I guess. Yes, anyone at any time can ask the staff for a new username, can't be done a billion times, but you get a few at least. Doesn't matter what a poster has said, especially if they broke no rules, they can change their name. Are you accusing keepbynum of changing his name to get away from his 'ridiculous statements'? If so that sounds like your hangup and maybe you should get over it, or take your issues up with him via pm. I believe the real reason was Bynum is no longer on our team so the username was obsolete, but hey, obsess over whatever you like.